The influence of magnetic field on the cluster growth in a magnetron sputtering gas aggregation source

Clusters produced by physical methods in gas phase have yet to see widespread adoption due to low deposition rates, despite the benefits that they could bring to many applications. It is demonstrated in this study that unbalancing the magnetic field configuration of a magnetron within a sputtering gas aggregation source significantly enhances dimer formation and subsequent cluster growth. Based on experimental results obtained with four magnetic field configurations, along with ab initio simulations, we discussed various scenarios for dimer formation and proposed that the contribution of is essential for an increase in cluster throughput. We analysed the resulting plasma spatial distribution and demonstrated that the selected magnetic field configuration significantly influences the lifetime of particles. When their lifetime is long, more can react with another metal atom (Pd) and form other stable complexes (Pd 2 , or ), a critical first step in cluster growth, increasing cluster throughput by a factor of 150-fold. The proposed mechanism might be material-independent as other metal-argon dimers ( , and ) have also been reported in the literature. • Comparison of balanced and unbalanced magnetrons and their impact on cluster growth. • Supported by ab initio simulations, diatomic ArPd + is key in cluster nucleation. • Cluster flux increased 150-fold by optimising the magnetic field configuration.